The Cutest Way to Eat Dessert
My last pumpkin dessert of the year (and what a perfect one, just in time for Thanksgiving)! I don’t know about you but I’m honestly breathing a sigh of relief. My kitchen has been overwhelmed with pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin cupcakes, and while Zach has been over the moon you guys know I’m not actually much of a pumpkin person myself. But for those of you who do enjoy the flavor, these mini pumpkin pie cheesecakes are the perfect pumpkin-infused treats, simple to make, and no baking required (I bet your oven has plenty of plans this week already!). The base starts with my homemade, no-bake cheesecake filling that’s infused with pumpkin and Fall spices for a cheesecake/pumpkin pie hybrid. They’re simple to make (the kids can help!) and so, so good.
What You Need
Here’s what you need:
Gingersnaps & butter. We’ll grind these up to make the “crust” for our desserts. I include notes in the recipe in case you’d like a graham cracker crust instead! Heavy Whipping cream. You can use heavy cream, whipping cream, or even double cream. We’ll whip this with powdered sugar and vanilla extract to make our own whipped cream. This will both serve some purpose as the stabilizer for the cheesecake layer and that swirl of whipped cream on top! Cream cheese. As with almost all of my cheesecake recipes, I recommend using brick-style cream cheese and not the spreadable kind, which contains additives and is less likely to firm up properly. You may have a bit more wiggle room with this recipe as opposed to my baked ones, but having not tried it myself I can’t say for sure how it would turn out. Pumpkin puree. I recommend using pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, which contains additives and spices that you don’t need here. Sugar. Brown sugar and powdered sugar add sweetness, and the molasses from the brown sugar adds a subtle (Fall-inspired) depth of flavor. Pumpkin Pie Spice. I happened to have a jar in my cabinet, but if you don’t have any you can easily make your own homemade pumpkin spice.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Mini Pumpkin Pie Cheesecakes
The steps listed below correspond with the numbered photos above. Tip: Crush an extra cookie or two and reserve the crumbs for sprinkling over the desserts before serving! This is just an overview of the instructions, the full printable recipe can be found below (along with a video).
More Recipes You Might Like
Banana Cream Pie Coconut Cream Pie Mini Cheesecakes Chocolate Icebox Pie
Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card! This recipe was originally published October 9th 2015. I’ve since updated to include more information, to use homemade whipped cream rather than Cool Whip, and to share a how-to video.
